


goes on without you

by Marishna



Series: Drips, drops and drabbles - significant moments of insignificantness [34]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Beacon Hills, Derek-centric, Evolved Derek Hale, Gen, One Shot, POV Derek, Post-Canon, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 09:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10716972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marishna/pseuds/Marishna
Summary: It took him a while but Derek eventually figured out why he failed so hard as an alpha.





	goes on without you

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a card_writing challenge at gameofcards on LJ. It's a song prompt and this ficlet was inspired by "You Gotta Be" by Des'ree.

It took him a while but Derek eventually figured out why he failed so hard as an alpha. 

After Mexico Derek felt like he’d gone through a baptism by fire and when he emerged on the other side he was a new person. That he even called himself a “person” was one of the many steps he went through to gain back any of his self-worth.

He went back and forth with Braeden until Derek made a conscious and deliberate decision to end their relationship and he returned to Beacon Hills. He could pick happy moments from his memories of the town but since the fire he couldn't’ remember ever going there because he _wanted_ to. 

Driving back to Beacon Hills from the last motel in Nevada he holed up with Braeden in gave him a lot of time to think about what he wanted this time around. He considered going back to New York for a hot minute but his last time there he was a different, more broken person. He kept his fear and anxiety pent up inside until it leaked out of him in spits and spurts and Laura would have to forcibly draw him into an embrace, clutching him tightly until he returned the hug. 

Scott was a good alpha. Scott did everything right when Derek’s experience was a laundry list of everything wrong with having so much power. For someone so young Scott just _got_ it in a way Derek never could. He tried too hard to be an alpha how his mother or sister would have been, not as he _should_ have but Scott only had Peter and Derek as role models--not exactly difficult to be better than them. 

Derek held his breath as he passed the “Welcome to Beacon Hills” sign on the outskirts of town. Maybe it was all in his head but he felt the currents running through the ground under his feet as he got closer. It was a steady, familiar hum that he never recognized before, a welcoming comfort to greet him once again. 

As if the energy knew this was his last return but his first official homecoming.


End file.
